Pale, male and stale: is being a white man now bad for your career?

Want to get heads rotating at your next dinner party or drinks get-together? Try tabling the morsel, “has there ever been a worse time to be a middle-aged white man in the world of work?” and watch the vol-au-vents fly.

Chances are your critics will play a merry jig on the world’s smallest violins, while chorusing from a well-worn hymn sheet. “Oh, grow a pair!” they’ll wail. “White men mostly rule the world. There are more men called John on the boards of FTSE 100 companies than there are women, and what about Donald Trump or the gender pay gap?!”

“Yes,” you can counter, “but have you noticed how white, middle-aged men are the only demographic that it’s safe to slander without being accused of discrimination?” Then quickly refer to the noise surrounding Theresa May’s Cabinet reshuffle, with a “senior source” lamenting “stale, male and pale Ministers who are the wrong side of 50”.